The bell of the Blue Zone stock exchange has just rung again, meaning it's time to take another look at who is rising and falling with their performances for Blue Devil sports teams. Each week the Blue Zone will look at whose stock is on the rise and whose stock has taken a hit from the week in the world of Duke athletics.
Trending Up
Duke women’s soccer: The third-seeded Blue Devils took down No. 2 seed Florida 2-1 on the road Sunday to advance to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. Junior Rebecca Quinn and freshman Taylor Racioppi both scored to help Duke rally from an early one-goal deficit. After missing the tournament with a down year last year, the Blue Devils have rebounded well with their sixth Elite Eight appearance in the last 10 years. They will now look to pull off another upset at Stanford Friday night before they would have an opportunity to play close to home at the Final Four in Cary, N.C.
Grayson Allen’s All-American odds: The sophomore guard looked unprepared to serve as the Blue Devils' leader last Tuesday against Kentucky, but he played like one of the best guards in the nation on his way to being named MVP of the 2K Classic during the weekend. Allen posted the first two 30-point games of his career in close victories against VCU and Georgetown at Madison Square Garden, keeping Duke in both contests during slow first-half starts for the rest of the team. The Jacksonville, Fla., native showed off the vast array of weapons in his offensive repertoire, hitting 9-of-14 shots from long distance in the two games, knocking down a few pull-up midrange jumpers and finishing in the paint with several floaters and tough layups. Allen was also 17-of-18 on free throws to improve to 89.7 percent from the line this season.
Duke swim and dive team: The Blue Devils continued their strong performance in the poll this weekend at the Nike Cup Invitational. The Duke men's team emerged victorious at the event for the first time in program history, while the women's team finished second in a nine-team field. During the three-day day event, the Blue Devils broke 13 school records and claimed two facility records. Overall, Duke finished with first-place finishes in seven individual events and five relays.
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Duke football: It was not a good week for the Blue Devils on and off the gridiron. Last Tuesday, Duke dismissed wide receivers Johnell Barnes and Terrence Alls and linebacker Chris Holmes from the team. Then, the Blue Devils went on the road to play Virginia—a perennial Coastal division cellar dweller—and suffered a 42-34 defeat to drop their fourth straight game and fall to 6-5 on the season. Duke will look to stop its recent skid at Wake Forest this Saturday, and all will be forgiven if it wins a bowl game for the first time in 56 years, but the possibility of a high-profile bowl destination is out the window at this point.
ACC basketball: The ACC entered the season with three teams in the top six of the AP poll. Duke is the only one that remains after Virginia and then-No. 1 North Carolina both lost to unranked opponents last week, and the Blue Devils dropped a spot to No. 6 after a loss to Kentucky. The losses continued all the way down the standings. Wake Forest lost to Richmond. Georgia Tech dropped a nail-biter to East Tennessee State. Florida State lost to Hofstra. On the women’s side, Louisville entered ranked No. 8 but dropped to 0-2 with a loss to Western Kentucky.
There were some bright spots, too. Miami emerged as a bona fide contender with convincing wins against Utah and Butler to take the Puerto Rico Tip-Off crown, and Wake Forest rebounded from the loss to Richmond with a big victory against Indiana Monday in the first round of the Maui Invitational. But all in all, these successes do not make up for a subpar week in the ACC.
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